Sunderland endured their most difficult night since Premier League promotion after Caoimhin Kelleher saved an Enzo Le Fee penalty in their 3-0 defeat to Brentford
09:57, 08 Jan 2026Updated 09:58, 08 Jan 2026
Enzo Le Fee had a night to forget in west London(Image: CameraSport via Getty Images)
Enzo Le Fee has described Sunderland’s 3-0 defeat to Brentford as ‘a difficult night’ after Caoimhin Kelleher saved his penalty.
Brian Brobbey won the spot-kick after being tripped by Kristoffer Ajer. That offered the Black Cats an opportunity to equalise and cancel out a first-half opener from Igor Thiago.
Le Fee stepped up to take his third penalty of the season on the hour mark, having converted his previous two. The first of those was in the reverse fixture at the Stadium of Light, when he sent Kelleher the wrong way with a firm pass into the bottom right corner.
Wednesday night, however, saw Le Fee try a ‘Panenka’ only for the Ireland international goalkeeper to read it and catch the chipped effort after standing up in the centre of his goal. The midfielder immediately put his head in his hands after realising what had happened.
Le Fee has now posted on social media after the match. In the early hours of Thursday morning, the midfielder shared a monochrome photo of himself from the game.
At the top of the image is the caption: “A difficult night.. React and go again,” followed by the flexed bicep emoji.
Enzo Le Fee’s Instagram post
Regis Le Bris defended his player in the aftermath of Wednesday’s defeat. He said: “When we win, we react as a team. When we lose, we want to react as a team as well.
“It’s not about just individuals, it’s about the whole squad. When you don’t take any risks, you don’t make any mistakes.
“It’s always the case. Let’s learn from this lesson and move forward.”
On the match as a whole, Le Bris said: “I think first of all Brentford were good. “They were at their level.
“It’s a tough place here. They were strong, direct, good in second balls and relentless.
“Even if we didn’t start well, we had the opportunity at the beginning of the second half to get back in the game. I think we showed better energy, but when you miss this kind of opportunity, it’s like a switch in the game. The energy of the crowd got even better, and we lost ours.
“I think today we probably had too many mismatches on the pitch. It’s about duels, it’s about composure with the ball. The duels we had were in favour of Brentford.
“It’s football. Just accept the defeat, learn from this experience and move forward.”